Fairy Tales: Not Just for Kids

As a collector and aficionado of fairy tales, I recall fondly the great deal of time I spent in my childhood reading such classics as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and The Prince and the Pauper. As I have looked at the same stories in my adulthood, I find to my disappointment that we have sanitized and watered down those old stories to make them more child-friendly'. While the older versions are more ghastly, they carry a stronger sense of the lessons they strove to teach. Those lessons are often still quite valuable. Even more so, however, the older versions are far more enjoyable to read as an adult.

Let us take a moment to look at the oft retold and examined story of Little Red Riding Hood. The lesson in this story is startlingly obvious. Despite our efforts to make the story as inoffensive as possible, the wolf remains a violent and unsavory character. The lesson is for children not to talk to strangers. In the older versions of the story, this role of the wolf and a violent and most unwholesome character is described in more detail.

The lesson of a story such as Rumplestiltskin however, has greater implications then the bland admonishment against bragging or lies about one's ability. Taking the story and reading in the context of its early renditions, one finds also a warning against dealing with the diabolical. Rumplestiltskin is one of the older stories that we still tell with its roots in the medieval time period. Along with this story we can find others from the same period with similar admonishments against breaking faith and returning to pagan ways.

When one looks at stories that are not as popular with the modern era, it is apparent that the primary audiences of these stories were not children, as we have now limited the audience of fairy tales to. Indeed, the French fairy tale of Bluebeard or the Russian fairy tale of Vasilisa the Fair contain sufficient grisly elements to suggest that the focus was to entertain adults rather then children. Indeed, as we re-read the fair tales we grew up with, like Hansel and Gretel or Jack and the Beanstalk it becomes apparent that this element has been present the entire time, but suppressed.

I can not say when the effort to sanitize fairy tales began. I do know, however, that it has robbed this vibrant part of our cultural heritage of a great deal of its appeal. As such, we should look for the older versions of those fairy tales. Once we acquaint ourselves with them, we shall find that the stories are more interesting then the somewhat standard mold of "the prince married the princess and they live happily ever after."

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